Honor band!!!!! HELP

[monkey]

Okay.. I have a new challange!! as ussual. if it wasn't from my braces to my solo here is this. Okay we have this honor band thing for all of the mid-colombia (like 10 schools) and I got choosen from my school, same with 4 other poeple. Im in the 8th grade and this is a high-school honor band with our school and many others and there are few 8th graders. well our band directors rated us and our music ability so we could get the right parts and chairs and stuff. well sense i have gotten my braces ( which my director still hasin't notice, I SUCK big time and my tone bites) my band director i guess rated me very highly and out of all of these highschoolers I have all 1st parts!!! they are extreamly hard and they are higher then I have ever gone before and they are fast. In our band the highest we go is the high E 3 lines above the staff and the high F 4 lines above the staff. in these peices they go up to G's and A's and with my braces its a realy chanlenge just to play the stuff in band.. im really discuraged and I only have 1 week till the honor band and I think im gonna make myself look like a complese idiot with all these highschoolers and me playing 1st.
~Vanessa~

[PiccChic06]

this is what helps me. i warm up for about a half an hour then i go to the stuff that i need to work on. just start with your high E. Play it as a long tone. Then move up to the F. Play it until you're satisfied with the sound. Then keep moving up to the notes you need to get. Play them first as long tones until you get the right sound. Then play them as quarter notes, then eigth notes, etc. It will come for you. I know it's hard playing with braces, i've been there. It's not fun. I had this same trouble last month. In our one piece for district band, we went to a high D (6 lines above the staff) I couldn't get it for the longest time. So i took the advice of my band director and tried this exercise. And it worked Good luck and have fun at your honor band!

[amhso]

haha, i am trying out for an honor band next year for my district ...the braces wont interfere with your playing after a week or 2...but i guess you may not have that much time...dont worry about the highschoolers, there are probably a lot more "fools" going there too, there is a small chance that you're actually the WORST trying out.

[monkey]

well today is the first day!!! I bet im gonna suck cause I can't play at least half of it but o well!!! I'll post back tonight to tell ya what happened!!
~Vanessa~

[monkey]

well we had the concert.. And to day the truth I didn't do all that bad!! It was a lot better than I thought it would be. Although I kinda lost my spot at the concert cause on America thought, I looked at the wrong line and I was lost for about 30 measures! o well I had a lotta fun.. even know I sucked!
~Vanessa~

[JTF]

I play a few wind instruments, flute included. one of the things i did first when i started on flute was improve my high notes. i did this by playing say, the D above the clef as a really long note, then varying the volume. i played the note, then got louder (slowly) till i was playing ff, then i quieted down (slowly) to pp, then i got louder again till i was playing mf. That takes tons of patience to do it smoothly, and by the time you have volume control down, you also have better pitch and tone.